45 replies to this topic

[taikara]

A few of you may not have known, but I've been banned for the last few days, hehe. My fellow admins (most especially Data ) felt I needed a little break, and did not think I could manage to take one without coercion, hehe.

To celebrate my return, I bring you the topic of spam, whee.

This is actually an issue I feel pretty strongly about, though I typically tend to be able to ignore my personal opinions on the matter.

I completely understand that spam can be fun. The problem I have with it is that while it may be fun for those involved in the actual spamming, it's rarely fun for people who are on the "outside," especially when the outsiders have to dig through a few pages of spam to find a few posts they can actually comment on. It's really discouraging to me to have to do that, in any case.

And it may be okay when you've got a smallish forum, and can keep track of the the personal foibles of each member individually, but on larger forums (such as Abandonia), it tends to get waaay out of hand, imho.

I personally see spam as pointless posts that only serve to continue a personal conversation between a few members (which we have a PM system for), and pointless, random posts that have little to do with the actual topic, and serve only to boost the poster's post count.

Overall, I think spamming (to an extreme) is just not good for a forum as a community. Actual content and discussion should be what's emphasized, in my book.

So, I suppose the questions are...

Do you like spam, or hate it, and why? and... What is your definition of spam?

[DeathDude]

My personal opinion on spam, I hate it, it can get really annoying especially when your trying to make a serious topic about something and then somebody posts something irrelevant or on something completely else which really breaks up the mood of the topic.

I see spam as the pointless posts that really add nothing to a topic, like mentioning something like oh yeah that's true, and then giving no reason, that just seems pointless imo. Once it really starts to get all over the place, then it becomes a problem as others may feel compelled to do what they see others doing, not always but in most cases.

I'd rather see a nice discussion and such that reveals peoples opinions on the topic, not little quickish posts and such that do nothing for the topic but quickly make it go off topic in a hurry and then bam the topic is lost and it'll probably get closed later on.

[BeefontheBone]

Hmmm. A tricky one - it's obviously extremely irritating when a serious topic gets overrun with pointless spam, but I don't have a problem with a controlled amount of rambling off-topicness in less serious topics like the English Gentlemen's Club - it's not intended to serve a serious purpose but is there for our amusement, and currently involves a discussion about drug (ab)use in Sherlock Holmes novels (not as funny as the Tim Westwood impressions mind). I'm more annoyed by things like "I agree" posts like DD mentioned and MULTIPLE POSTING! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Why must people ignore the Edit button even after they've been told about it?

[Tulac]

I think a few spam topics are OK once in a while, especially if you know people who you spam with, it can be fun...
However I once joined a forum where every topic got spammed sooner or later, and admins not only approve of it, but joined the spamming, and every other topic was a spam topic by nature(Now playing, forum games and such), so while that might have been entertaining for older members, there were no discussion that a newbie like me could've join in, so I left...

[Flop]

I'm with the majority here. I think spam can be all right in smaller doses. As Beef said, some topics call for spam, like the English club, if you can call it spam in such a case. I'd also say that in some cases, off topic posts can actually lead to very good and very serious discussions, albeit off topic.

But yeah, doubleposting and one-sentence irrelevant posts are the worst kind of spam, and those kinds of posts always clutter up topics, never adding to them in any way.

So to summarize: spam can be all right, even good, but it can also be destructive to a forum if not kept in check.

[Tom Henrik]

Same here.

Spam, to me, are useless posts. Either because they are completely irrelevant to the current discussion, or because they would serve a better purpose as a PM.

Spam in small dozes in special topics is ok, BUT....
Even though I approve of the occational spam topic that is used to talk jibberish and whatnot, I really hate when only two member use that spam topic and post every 2 seconds. That always make me close the topic.

I feel that spam should be controlled by the person. If you want to spam a "spam" topic, then you should also wait a long while before posting in the same topic again. Spam is for fun, not for increasing the post count.

Anyways... enough rambling from me.

[Stroggy]

Tom Henrik, on Jun 14 2005, 02:53 PM, said:

Spam, to me, are useless posts.

Like the noodlefolk!

[Indignus IV]

Going on what Taikara was saying, I think spam IS okay because our forum IS small. Woopdeedoo, we have 4000 members on the other site. 3950 of them havent even posted once. Technically, we have less than 150 true members. And we all really know each other well enough, I think, to be able to forgive the occasional spam. I think we all can get a little obsessive about this relatively minor topic. Maybe we should give it another name, too. (beef? cold cut? processed meat products?)

[taikara]

Actually, Indignus, it's sort of the situation over at Abandonia that caused me to be curious about how people feel about this issue.

It's a lot different over there now than it was when I joined about 5 months ago.

Honestly, it seems that at least 70% of what's posted over there is just spam. It's really frustrating going there once a day and seeing about 10 new topics each with about 3-5 new pages, most of which don't really seem to mean much of anything, quite a few of which are filled with petty arguments, and many of which are just resurrections of old topics.

It seemed to happen overnight, and personally, I never want to see that happen here at AR. I love the people at Abandonia, but it's completely lost the sense of community it once had. Now, it's more like little enclaves of personalities all clashing at each other.

Spam can be fun, but it also can cause extreme annoyance, misunderstandings, and it can exclude people.

So where is the line drawn?

Unfortunately, it's difficult to make that decision. In the smaller scheme of things, spam is fine. If it gets out of control, however, you no longer have a cohesive environment.

The problem is, it can get out of control all too easily.

[MdaG]

Use the shoutbox for spam I say. Even if the majority of all posts are done by 150 members, that's more than enough to crowd a subforum with "crap".

*edit*

Maybe the "blah blah blah"-topics could have something like "no post increment"? Even remove all post counts retroactively. For example if I have a postcount of 800 where 780 of those is due to posting in "Blah blah blah". Then I suddenly get a postcount of 20 and no more increments in "Blah blah blah"... Just a thought.

[BeefontheBone]

Indignus IV, on Jun 15 2005, 03:02 AM, said:

Maybe we should give it another name, too. (beef? cold cut? processed meat products?)

Can we please NOT name it after me? I don't think I'd like the assosciation.

[Tulac]

Maybe there should be a forum like spammatory deposit where one could spam, but it would lower his postcount by one each time he posts there...

[Doc Adrian]

I think some of the jibber jabber is pretty fun to read, though I suppose people can overkill anything.  
I don't mind people saying something like "I agree" so much, as long as they add to it and contribute something to the discussion.  Or as my teacher used to say "Show your work"
Double and Triple posting with little responses could earn a pistol whipping.
Advertising post spam, definatly annoys me.
And referencing Abandonia forums, I wish somehow we could get the rest of the world to figure out what the ESA stands for, so we don't have to explain every other game post.

I do enjoy the conversational threads overall though.

[Indignus IV]

I agree with Taikara. Useless topics at Abandonia are all over the place now. "Tornado watch in my area? wtf?" boring. However, I think it's okay if you spam a little in a topic that is interesting. wont hurt. Anyway, Abandonia is where my money is. I'm gonna spend more of my time on that, than here. This site just seems a little too much like you guys broke away and made an abandonia clone where you could just talk in private about spam.
         But yeah, spam is annoying. I just wish people would stop talking about it so much, and there would be less spam!  

P.S> Beef, sorry about naming the spam after you

[auhsor]

I agree that spam can be good in small doses, but not when it is being shoved in your face and you are expected to eat it. It's just not that nice really.

My suggestion would be to disable post count increment in the Blah Blah forum as well as removing the posts text below peoples avatars. That makes increasing ones post count seem less meaningful and would encourage more meaningful discussion.